A Blessed Sunday

Today Covenant Evangelical Reformed Church celebrated its 27th anniversary.  The celebration theme was "Praise Be to Our Great and Merciful God."  The celebration began with a morning sermon from Psalm 89 on God's covenant faithfulness and continued with a program after the morning service.

Daniel Ong leading the program and reading letters 

from four Protestant Reformed ministers/professors

The program included special numbers by all of the Bible study groups in church.

Two of the Bible studies singing a Psalter number

Two more Bible study groups

The Covenant Keepers and Covenant Keepers Seniors

(young people and young adults)

The program concluded with a short exhortation by my husband and then the customary cake-cutting.

The Session singing (with the rest of the congregation) 

Elder Lee, Deacon Tang, Elder Wee, Deacon Lim, 

Elder Chan, Rev. Lanning, Elder Wong, Elder Leong

The program was followed by a lunch made by the youth.

American food :-)

Another wonderful part of the day was the presence in church of little Jonam Tan.  Jonam was due to be born this month, but was born before we left for our furlough in June. After a couple of months in the hospital, Jonam was healthy enough to go home; and today was his first day in church.  He is the first baby to be born in CERC in almost three years. What a special blessing that he could join us in church on the church's anniversary--another evidence of God's covenant faithfulness!

The song the youth sang for their special number was Psalter #425.  The rest of the congregation joined the singing on stanzas 5 and 6.  My husband and I enjoyed singing verse 5 again, remembering the many times we have sung that song at baptisms through the years; but this time verse 6 also struck me:

"The Lord His covenant people planted

In lands of nations which He granted...

Let songs of praise to Him ascend,

And hallelujahs without end."

Medical Care

Having had to take Jason to the doctor this past week, I thought I'd tell you about Singapore's medical care, as we have experienced it.  Of course this is somewhat limited, but it will give you an idea of at least some of the medical care here.

Doctors' clinics can be found in many, many places.  If we walk outside our building and cross the parking lot, we are already at one clinic.  There is another a little farther down the street.  These are both what we would call "family doctors."  Within a mile is the Bishan Baby and Child Clinic.  These places each have one doctor and one or two people at the front desk.  No appointment is necessary; you walk in and take a "queue number," and when your turn comes up, the doctor sees you.  The pharmacy is also right on site, so if you are the only patient at the time, you can be in and out with all your medicines within 10-15 minutes.

The clinic closest to our place

The family doctors here prescribe a lot of medicines.  For a fever and cough, we take home at least four prescriptions.  There are a few reasons for this.  One is that the pharmacy being in the doctor's office means that the doctor makes extra money for the prescriptions he sells.  Another is that people are anxious to get back to work or school, so they will take anything available to them to help them get rid of the sickness as quickly as possible.  We don't like to give our kids so many meds though, so thankfully Dr. Decker in Michigan has been willing to answer a couple of emails I sent him, asking which medicines our kids really needed among all the bottles on our counter!  We still refer back to those emails when we go to the doctor here.

These are the meds we had in our house at one time earlier this year--

one for Eric, two or three for Jason, and all the rest for Megan!  

We probably didn't use half of them.

For all that, we have only had a couple of expensive prescriptions given to us.  Much more typical is what we experienced the other day:  my husband took Jason to the doctor and came back with four medicines, having paid $35 for the consultation fee and all the meds combined!  You can't beat that! :-)

The hospitals here are known for being very good.  You can see from the following picture that they have some world-class doctors in Singapore.  This was part of a sign inside a hospital lobby.  (NHCS, KKH, and SGH are all different hospitals here.)

The heart/liver transplant done in 2009 was for Pastor Lau.

Our family has had to use the hospitals here a couple of times for testing and minor problems.  (For example, in our two-year-old's terms, explaining why he went to the hospital once:  "Bead in nose 'n doctor 'n bead out!")  I have stayed home with the rest of the family while my husband has driven the sick kids to the hospital, but he said the hospitals feel very much like those in the U.S.  Megan was hospitalized overnight once for observation and testing when she had a terrible rash all over her body.  The term "hospitalized" is not used here so much though--they would say Megan was "warded."  That is because most hospitals do not have private rooms, but patient wards.  Megan's condition required her to be in isolation, so she did have her own room.

Megan in the hospital in January

In the similarities and in the sometimes difficult differences in doctors' approaches here, we are reminded that doctors are only means in the hand of God, and that our health is always in His control. 

Two More Marriages

CERC just celebrated the marriages of two more couples, besides the couple that got married in June. The wedding of Ywee Ern and Hui Li took place on August 16.

Hui Li walking down the aisle with her dad, Cheng Chye

 Charis and Megan, the flower girls

Beautiful setting for an evening wedding dinner

The bride's aunt, Suet Yin, and mother, Suet Wan

The newly-married couple greeting the wedding guests

Part of the dinner

The bride with our table at the dinner

A group of church youth

On August 23 we celebrated another marriage.  Michael and June had been married at the Registry of Marriage a month earlier, and wanted to have their marriage confirmed before the church this past Saturday.  It was a simple and very nice ceremony held in our sanctuary and followed by lunch afterwards.

The couple walking down the aisle to have their marriage confirmed

Repeating their vows--They had made vows earlier, but there are also vows included in the marriage form in the back of the Psalter--which is the Form for the Confirmation of Marriage Before the Church.

Group photo after the ceremony, as is done at all weddings here

Part of the lunch--the Singapore version of carrot cake!

These weddings are big events in the life of the congregation.  As you can see from the group photo above, many or most church members attend each wedding.  May God bless these couples as they begin their married life, and may He continue to build His Church.

Dykstras' Stay in Singapore

Most of the time that we were in the U.S., Prof. and Mrs. Dykstra were in Singapore.  They have been here for extended stays a couple of times in the past, and the church here was very excited to host them again.  They arrived a couple days before we left and, apart from two weeks in Australia for a conference there, stayed in Singapore until the Monday after we arrived back here.

On the balcony outside our flat--They came to visit with our family

before we left, just as a Bible study was finishing at our place.

The annual CERC church camp was held the first week we were gone, with Prof. Dykstra as the speaker.  The topic was "God's Covenant in the Psalms."

This year's church camp photo (thanks to Daniel Tang)

While Prof. Dykstra was in Australia he was joined by Rev. Nathan Decker, who then came to Singapore on his way home to preach for one Sunday.  Rev. Decker also had a "Table Talk" with the youth--more about those later--and was able to join the congregation for a church outing.

Rev. Decker with some of the congregation on Sunday afternoon

When the Dykstras arrived back in Singapore, Prof. gave two speeches on Christian education, giving the principles of Christian education and the practical steps for beginning a school.  He also had a Table Talk with the youth on his last Sunday here, and we were able to attend that.  Table Talks are basically open question and answer sessions for any biblically-related question.  We covered whether it was okay for Jacob to show favoritism to Joseph and Benjamin, what our relationships will be like in heaven ("Will I know that that man was my husband?" etc.), how we can be thankful FOR everything, and a few other questions.

Prof. Dykstra looking at the questions, some of which are typed up beforehand; 

others may be asked from the floor during the Table Talk.

Following that, there was a dinner with the Dykstras, and then some singing and farewells.

Several of the youth lined up to say goodbye to Prof. Dykstra

One last picture I have to include--the congregation after the afternoon service on Prof. and Mrs. Dykstra's last Sunday here.

We are thankful for the work that was done by the Dykstras and by Rev. Decker while we were gone.  May the church here be blessed by their instruction, and may they be blessed as they pick up their work again in the U.S.

Back in Singapore

We are back in Singapore, after finishing our furlough with a trip to Mackinaw City and a few last visits with family and friends.

On Mackinac Island

Get-together with friends at Lawrence Park in Zeeland

Getting ready to set up one more tent for a camp-out 

with the Lanning cousins in Grandpa & Grandma's backyard

We drove down to Chicago on Monday, August 4, to fly out of O'Hare Airport.  My inlaws came with us, which was very helpful since we had much more luggage going back than coming!  That included two years' worth of homeschooling books for four kids, a little bit of food that is hard to come by here, and a lot of clothes for the next two years, since they are much cheaper and easier to find in the U.S.!

Our flights back went well.  After a night in San Francisco, we had an 11 hour and 10 minutes long flight to Seoul, South Korea, then another 5 hours and 35 minutes to Singapore.

In the Seoul airport--I just paid 4300 for four donuts, and I can't 

read the receipt and have no idea what the exchange rate is! :-)

We arrived in Singapore about 1:00 a.m. Thursday and were greeted at the airport by about 20 people from church.  We came back to a few changes in the neighborhood.  The most noticeable one was the installation of new "contraptions" (for lack of a better term!) for hanging laundry.  Before, each flat had little holes below the windows, where the ends of long poles with laundry hanging on them would be inserted.  Now instead of just holes, there are these contraptions where the laundry poles are inserted into slots at either end. It seems to be a safer way to hang the poles!

Also, progress has been made on installing new elevators in the buildings around here.

Flags are hanging for the August 9 National Day.

We also came back to find Ghost Month in full swing.  (You can read more about that here.) We smell burning often, as extra offerings are made to people's ancestors.

A lot of trash on normally clean streets, all from the papers people are burning

Offerings set up outside the nearest wet market (intended 

for the ghosts that are supposedly wandering around this month)

Once again we are thankful for God's grace in saving us and His saints in Singapore from the kind of fear that Ghost Month represents.  We look forward to worshiping Him with His people tomorrow.

Furlough Update

The last few weeks have been full of visits with family and friends.

My husband's family, minus sister-in-law Dawn

Football with the cousins in their grandparents' backyard

With Kurt & Ruth Kaptein's family

Jessica and Emily with Rylee and Lauren Engelsma,

very good friends from the Faith Church neighborhood

With Joel Mulder and Dave Korhorn

ĵ

With Rick & Jill Elzinga's family

Even had time for a little yard work!

The Key family (my family) celebrated my grandparents' 60th anniversary and also spent a week together at some cottages on Robinson Lake in Michigan.

Getting ready for family pictures

Two of the four new cousins / nephew & nieces 

that have been born since we moved away

Eric and his cousin Caleb on the lake

Two-year-old cousins wrestling

Megan and her cousin Luke, three months apart and good friends!

We had a visit from Justin & Cathie Koole 

and Rev. & Allison Spronk at the cottages one evening.

With the Spronks--The men were seminary classmates.

Jessica and Eric were also able to participate in one of the camps held at Covenant Christian High School.

Opening devotions in Covenant's library

Jessica and two of her classmates (and a classmate's sister) with their Lego robot

Eric testing out his group's robot

My husband preached in a number of the churches in the Grand Rapids area, and was able to do two infant baptisms.

With Jared & Sue Dekker and Chase at Georgetown PRC

He also gave a presentation on July 20 to a full auditorium at Grandville High School.

It was very encouraging to see the interest in the work God is doing in building His church in Singapore.  May He continue to strengthen the ties between these sister churches, the PRC and CERC!